


Up No More

by Venxvon



Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: Aran Ship Week Day 5, Aran and Kita are smart until you put them next to each other, Comedy, Fake/Pretend Relationship, Fluff, Inarizaki, Inarizaki second years are also there i promise, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-13
Updated: 2021-01-13
Packaged: 2021-03-16 16:49:26
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 7,681
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28709994
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Venxvon/pseuds/Venxvon
Summary: The point was, thinking about it with Oomimi and Akagi staring at him, Aran’s not really sure he has an excuse. It wasn’t slow, it wasn’t natural, it was actually pretty sudden and jarring. It had taken forever to get used to it, he wasn’t even sure if he was used to it now, actually. Or if he’d just gotten really good at shoving down any reaction he might’ve had before. He knows the exact day it had happened, and exactly what caused it.But then how had it gotten this far?
Relationships: Kita Shinsuke/Ojiro Aran
Comments: 17
Kudos: 60





	Up No More

**Author's Note:**

> Title from Twice’s “Up no more” !  
> Sorry this submission is so late ;-; i hope everyone enjoys though!!  
> this was supposed to be 4k ;;;-;;;  
> And as always please give me some time for edits!!

Looking back on it, Aran can pinpoint the exact moment it happened. He wishes he could be those other love stories, tell himself that it was too slow, too gradual for him to notice it. _Oh,_ those stupid romcoms would say, _It was just so natural, it felt so right,_. Then they’d stare at the other person and go _Oh._ and kiss. Then, Akagi would cry into his pillow and Oomimi would make fun of him and Kita would stare so hard at the screen that Aran had to wonder how his eyes weren’t burning.

But that wasn’t the point. The point was, thinking about it with Oomimi and Akagi staring at him, Aran’s not really sure he has an excuse. It wasn’t slow, it wasn’t natural, it was actually pretty sudden and jarring. It had taken forever to get used to it, he wasn’t even sure if he was used to it now, actually. Or if he’d just gotten really good at shoving down any reaction he might’ve had before. He knows the exact day it had happened, and exactly what caused it.

Kita had invited him over to work on a project together-

“That should’a been your first clue,” Akagi butts in, “Shinsuke hates doing homework with other people.”

“What?” Aran asks, “We do homework together all the time.”

Akagi sighs, letting his hands slide over his face, “Of course you do.”

“Keep going,” Oomimi encourages, pushing Akagi away.

Anyways. Kita had invited him over to work on a project in their second year, and Aran had agreed. It hadn’t seemed weird at the time, he and Kita had been friends since first year. They’d been to each other’s houses often enough and at this point Aran’s pretty sure his brother likes Kita more than him.

Then, they had gotten to Kita’s house and Kita had taken a deep breath, grabbed Aran’s hand, and walked in. Aran didn’t even have the opportunity to question it, before Kita’s grandma was there, beaming at the both of them as they walked in hand in hand.

“Is this him?” She had asked, and Aran had been a little confused because Kita’s grandmother had definitely met him before.

“Yeah,” Kita had replied, squeezing Aran’s hand-

“YOU DIDN’T QUESTION THIS?” Akagi yells, slamming his hands on the table.

“I’m not done!” Aran replies, because he _wasn’t_ and Akagi was jumping to conclusions!

“Fine! Fine!! Keep going,” Akagi concedes, sitting back.

Then Kita had squeezed his hand, confirming his grandmother’s words. Smiling softly at her, and Aran had been so confused. He was about to open his mouth and ask what was going on (see Akagi? _see?_ ) when Kita’s grandmother approached them.

“I’m glad you two are happy,” she smiled, then looked at Aran, “I’m glad it’s you, y’know.” She fake whispered, “I always knew you’d be a good one for my Shinsuke.”

And that’s what really tipped him off that he was missing something (He nods in thanks as Oomimi restrains Akagi). He'd been completely ready to question everything happening when he spared a glance at Kita, which is definitely where he messed up.

Kita was generally pretty expressionless, but in that moment when Aran’s sure he saw some genuine panic. His eyes were wide, and he had been biting his lip in anticipation of Aran’s response. His brows were furrowed just the slightest bit, and Aran wasn’t completely used to seeing so much emotion on Kita’s face but he knew what that expression meant.

_Please_.

So he had smiled back at Kita’s grandmother, nodded and thanked her. She seemed satisfied by his response, like it only proved what she had already thought, and ushered them out of the room. She sent them off to Kita’s room without much fuss after that and told them she’d have some snacks ready soon. Then the door closed and they were left alone in Kita’s room, holding hands.

“Oh ho!” Akagi exclaims, “Door closed?” He waggles his eyebrows.

Aran groans, “Please shut up.”

He had looked over at Kita, and the movement seemed to be enough to shake Kita out of whatever stupor he had fallen into. He dropped Aran’s hand like a hot potato, and quickly sat down and started pulling out his work for the project.

Aran sat down a bit slower, still trying to process what just happened.

“Did I just lie to your Grandma?” He asked, pulling his bag around to put in his lap to find his work. “I feel like I was just lying to your Grandma.”

Kita had kept shuffling through his papers, but bit his lip again, Aran continued.

“I think lying to someone as nice as your grandma is like. A mortal sin Kita, I’m pretty sure you’re not supposed to do it,” Kita’s paper shuffling slowed down, “Can I ask why I lied?”

Kita opened his mouth, papers now resting on the table, but nothing came out. He bit his lip again, looking a bit at a loss.

“Okay,” Aran tried, “Can I know _what_ I probably just lied about?”

“I-” Kita sighed, “Remember the other day I said my grandmother gets… excited about me getting into a relationship?”

Aran snorted, “Didn’t you say she was already mentioning your wedding?”

“Yes,” Kita sighed, “And so I ended up telling her I was seeing someone.”

Aran wasn’t sure he liked where this was going, "Okay…”

“And I told her that I would bring him home soon, and then she saw you and I guess she assumed you’re who I was talking about?”

Aran blinked, “Why’d you invite me over then? If she was waiting for you to bring home a date?”

“You KNOW why!” Akagi yells, and Aran wonders if Oomimi would let him tape Akagi’s mouth shut.

Kita had let his head rest on the table in front of him at the question, mumbling something Aran couldn’t hear.

“What?”

“I forgot!” Kita repeated, “I forgot she was waiting for that. I was gonna ask Oomimi to do it, because Atsumu said we already looked like a married couple. But then I had some issues with some schoolwork, and Suna wanted some extra practice one day, then I had to make sure Gin was doing his cleaning right another and-” Kita sighed again, “Well I just lost track I guess.”

“Not to be Akagi,” Oomimi starts, “But did that feel like the truth?”

Akagi interrupts before Aran can answer, “It’s all lies! Every word he said was a lie! He’s never had trouble with school! Suna would die before askin’ Kita for extra practice! And Gin hasn’t messed up cleaning since that one time Kita commented that Atsumu’s area looked nicer than his!”

“But Atsumu did say Oomimi and Kita looked like a married couple,” Aran points out.

Akagi sends him a look, “Fine! Yes! Okay! That part is true!” He crosses his arms and huffs, “Just finish your explanation.”

“Oh,” Aran had replied, feeling a little weird about knowing it was apparently supposed to be Oomimi in his position. He wasn’t sure why but, he didn’t like the thought very much. He had laughed along with the others when Atsumu had said they looked married, but now the thought of it made something snake through his chest. “I mean, we could ‘break up’? If you still want Oomimi to do it.”

“No.” Kita replied quickly, lifting his head up, “It’s fine, this is good,” He glanced at Aran, “Unless you’re uncomfortable?”

Kita’s face had gone back to being expressionless when they had entered the room, and even now his face revealed nothing. But, Aran had found that after a year of knowing him that even Kita had chinks in his armor. Aran could hear the way Kita’s voice wavered from the question.

It occurred to him then, that this was probably a lot for Kita. This one conversation was probably more sharing than Kita probably did in a month, let alone 10 minutes.

“No! No I’m not uncomfortable, I just-” Kita’s staring at him again, and Aran’s pretty sure his brain blanked for a moment, “If you like Oomimi, or just want do it with him-”

“I don’t.” Kita replied quickly.

“Ouch!” Akagi says and Oomimi rolls his eyes.

“Oh. Okay.” Aran had said, and Kita had nodded, the both of them in agreement.

“Thank you for doing this,” Kita then added, “You didn’t have to, and I know lying to my grandmother is hard.” He looked up at Aran, smiling again, “So thank you.”

Aran smiled back, ignoring the way his heart is racing. Had he always felt like this when Kita smiled? He had figured some things out today.

“So, should we try and figure out what we’re going to do then?” Aran asked, and Kita tilted his head in confusion. “You know, like who we’re going to tell, how we got together, all that stuff? We don’t have to tell anyone… but we should probably have some answers ready in case your grandma starts asking questions.”

“Ah, that’s true, we can figure that out if you want.” Kita put his papers back on the table. “But we should work on the project first.”

Oomimi chuckles, “That sounds like Kita.”

“Okay, but that’s it?” Akagi asks, leaning back in his chair, “You guys just, stared at each other, had a 2 minute heart to heart that was probably Kita’s emotional quota for the year then, bam! Fake dating?”

“Yeah, I guess,” Aran shrugs. “We just kept doing it, it wasn’t really an issue… It went on for about a year before well, you know.”

They both sigh, because yeah, they did know.

The time after Aran and Kita had decided to fake date had been surprisingly normal. All it had meant was holding hands with Kita more often, standing a little closer than usual, and opening themselves up to more physical contact. It had been bad for Aran’s heart at first, and the first time Kita had fallen asleep on his shoulder while they did homework together had probably almost killed him. Definitely not helped by the fact that Kita’s grandmother had walked in to see it, and then took a million photos.

Aran had found himself enjoying the physical contact after a bit though, and even seeking it out subconsciously. He started grabbing Kita’s hand after they walked under the bridge together walking home. Got used to Kita falling asleep on him during long bus rides or late nights studying, he even used Kita as his own personal pillow a few times. They somehow still managed to avoid the team’s attention and Aran had found himself genuinely enjoying the closeness he and Kita started to share. Sure, it wasn’t completely real, and it was under a false pretense that Aran wasn’t ever really sure Kita would want to move past, but he’d taken it, and allowed himself to have some joy in it.

It had gotten a little weird again when they started actually going on fake dates (Akagi lets out a _What!?_ but Aran chooses to ignore it). This being a result of Kita’s grandmother chiding Kita for, “Never taking Aran out on a proper date!”

Aran almost choked when she said it one day over tea, but she had continued like Aran wasn’t trying to cough out a lung, “Nice boys like Aran, you have to treat them right Shinsuke!”

Aran tried to laugh it off, but he was still coughing and Kita’s grandmother seemed very determined in making sure Kita was ‘treating him right’. Kita seemed like he had no qualms in arguing this, and instead of being embarrassed, or trying to play it off like anyone else would have, he instead nodded seriously at his grandmother’s words.

“Aran,” He said, placing a hand on Aran’s shoulder and rubbing gently to help him through his final coughs, “Would you like to go on a date with me tomorrow?”

“Woo!” Akagi whoops, punching the air, “Shinsuke went for it!”

Aran sighs, but doesn’t deny it.

Aran had almost started choking again at the question, but Kita looked completely unphased, and if anything, maybe a little amused. Like he knew what was doing to Aran right now. Well two could play at that game.

“Of course I would Shinsuke,” He replied after catching his breath, sending a small smile at Kita.

Kita-

“Oh is that why you started calling him Shinsuke for a while earlier this year?” Oomimi asks while Akagi grumbles something about them being the worst. “I thought it was kind of sudden but it was weirder when you went back to Kita.”

“Yeah,” Aran rubs the back of his neck, “I thought it would be fine but he kept making it a big deal and then it got so embarrassing I had to go back to Kita.”

“I hate you two,” Akagi sighs, “I can’t believe our captains have been married this whole time and we only just found out.”

“Shut up! We weren’t- we’re not!”

Oomimi levels Aran with a Look, and this isn’t fair. Aran and Kita were their captains, they’re the ones who give people stern and disappointed looks to prove a point. He didn’t get those looks! What had his life become?

“Okay Aran,” Oomimi says patiently, and wow is this how the Miyas felt when he and Kita did it? Maybe he’d buy them pudding later. “Why don’t you keep catching us up,”

Kita’s eyes had widened for a second, as his grandmother laughed at the use of his first name. Aran let his smile turn a little mean and Kita immediately responded, face calming down enough to let Aran see the competitive spark in his eye when he smiled back. Aran knew that meant this wasn’t over. Kita never backed down from a challenge.

Sure enough their first ‘date’ had been structured to let Kita embarrass him as much as possible. Kita had picked him up, and immediately walked him to the nearest flower shop, picking up a bouquet he had already prepared and giving it to him right outside the shop. And as if having to carry that around for the rest of the night wasn’t enough, Kita made a point to not let him do anything the entire date. Opening doors, pulling out chairs, Kita even _ordered_ for him.

That was all kinds of embarrassing, and even when Aran had tried to stop Kita from ordering for him, he’d been unable to. Kita had just smiled at him over his menu, softly put a hand on his, and squeezed it softly.

“Don’t worry, I know what to get you.” He’d said calmly, and kept on ordering. Aran had been left basically dumbstruck in response, and just let it happen.

Oomimi slaps a hand over Akagi’s mouth before he can say anything.

It had only been made worse by the fact that Aran had actually really liked the food Kita ordered him. He’d told Kita so, and Kita had just sent him a smug smile. And boy had _that_ been annoying. Aran had decided then that he’d find something Kita liked, and the next day he’d brought Kita a lunch full of food he’d chosen. Kita had been surprised, and the flush on his cheeks almost distracted Aran into forgetting to ask Kita what he thought. Luckily, he snapped out of it and asked Kita to try the food.

Kita tried it, and his eyes had widened when he tried it.

“Where did you get this?” Kita asked, staring at the food in surprise.

“Oh just some random store by my house,” Aran lied, he had actually asked his mom how to make it the night before and spent the entire morning perfecting it.

“Ah, I’m surprised they sell it there. I think the last time I had this is when my sister was over,” Kita said, content as he ate from the lunch box Aran had given him. Aran nodded, he knew that, Kita had told him last year. But Kita didn’t need to know he still remembered.

Kita sent him a happy smile, and Aran let himself bask in it for a second. Then he sent Kita a smug look, “Looks like you’re not the only one who knows what to get.”

Kita blinked at him for a second, then chuckled, a sunny smile on his face.

“You’re right,” He smiled, “Guess I’ll have to work hard to keep up with you while we date. Thank you Aran.”

Aran knew he won, but hearing that short circuited his brain enough that it felt a lot like a loss.

“I can’t believe we missed that,” Akagi says, awestruck, “That would’a been so funny.”

“It wasn’t! I was taken aback!” Aran whines.

“Did Kita actually get you back?” Oomimi asks.

“Oh yeah, that’s why Kita and I bring each other lunch every day.” Aran confirms.

They both blink at him.

“You do not do that,” Akagi says, “There’s no way I missed that.”

“I do!” Aran pulls out his lunch box, wrapped in a yellow cloth with dark brown foxtails, “See? This one is mine but I eat out of the one that has the white tail wrap.”

“I also didn’t know.” Oomimi says, staring at the cloth pattern.

“Well it looks like you learn something new every day Akagi,” Aran pauses as Oomimi’s words sink in. “Wait. BOTH OF YOU?”

“How would we know!”

“Maybe because you EAT LUNCH WITH US EVERY DAY??”

Akagi crosses his arms and looks away, “I don’t see how that’s relevant.”

“How would it _not be rele-_ ” Aran’s cut off by Oomimi holding a hand up.

“Okay, okay. Maybe we… missed some signs every now and then.” Oomimi admits, “But lets just keep moving on, I think if we leave the second years with Kita any longer he’ll trick ‘em into thinking he can hear their thoughts.”

“Is Kita getting this from the second years right now?” Aran asks.

Akagi laughs, “More like the second years are probably getting it from him. Did you know he found Atsumu’s snack stash the other day? He’s probably giving him hell for it right now.”

Aran winces, he remembers Kita telling him about it.

“Why’d you leave them in there with him? That’s gotta be some sort of crime.”

“They wanted t’be included,” Oomimi shrugs, “And we needed a way to distract Kita so he couldn’t swoop in and save you.”

“This is feeling more and more like an interrogation.” Aran sighs.

“This would be the least formal interrogation in the world Mr.Drama, now keep going.”

“I’m not going to keep telling the story like that if you’re going to call me ‘Mr. Drama’!”

“Awww what! But that was the fun part!”

“Plus, there’s not much left to tell anyways,” Aran sighs, “That was really the only big date we went on. After that his Grandma was satisfied enough that we could just go on smaller ones for the rest of the year. Those weren’t even really dates either, one of us would just buy flowers and we’d walk around and buy stuff for the team y’know? Sometimes we’d hold hands. Does that even count?”

“That’s so domestic,” Akagi whispers, and Aran swipes at him.

“Is that really everything? Nothing else major?”

“You mean besides yesterday?” Aran asks deadpan. “Then no. You know everything now.”

“Hmmm, we should go over yesterday,” Akagi chimes in, “For the record.”

“Can you stop pretending you’re in a bad action movie?”

“Never.”

“Fine,” Aran sighs, “I’ll go over yesterday, even though you two were _there_ , but that’s it, okay? I have to get going.”

Oomimi and Akagi nod in agreement.

“Kita’ll probably be done with the second years by then, so let’s finish up quick!”

Kita had been a little wary of inviting over the second years, but he had promised them they’d hold strategy meeting at least once a month at his house if they did well at Interhigh. Second place was definitely ‘doing well,’ so the second years had been adamant in making sure he remembered. Aran knew Kita wasn’t incredibly excited, but when his grandmother had approved it, and told him she was excited to meet his friends, he had warmed up to the idea.

There was still the risk of her saying something about the two of them, but they already explained to her that they wanted to lay low about their relationship. She completely understood, and had never slipped in front of any of their friends before, so Aran was sure it’d be fine.

What he was actually worried about, was the second years.

“Wooo!!” Atsumu cheered as they walked down the road to Kita’s house, “We finally get to see Kita’s house!”

“Thank you again Kita!” Gin called from next to Atsumu, “This is actually really cool!”

“Of course,” Kita responded, “I did promise didn’t I? You all did well at this Interhigh, things like this will help us do even better.” He turned and glanced at them. “Thank you for your hard work.”  
Kita turned back around but Aran could tell the second years were probably reveling in that small comment. He chuckled to himself, Kita really knew how to rile them up.

He turned to say as much to Kita, but when he looked over he stopped himself. Kita’s face was neutral but Aran could see him fiddling with the strap of his bag. _Ah, he’s nervous._

So instead Aran turned back around to the second years as they reached the gate of the house, catching them in their various positions of accomplishment at Kita’s words. He raised an eyebrow at them, and they all quickly dropped them and went back to normal.

“This isn’t Kita’s house though,” Aran reminded them as Kita opened the gate and they all walked up to the door, “This is his grandmother’s house, so what are you all going to do?”

The second years all straightened up a bit, “Behave!” They responded in unison.

“That’s right,” Aran nodded, “Let’s not mess around so we don’t disturb his grandmother okay?”

They all nodded, then Osamu spoke up, “You look like a tour guide right now.”

“Yeah,” Atsumu agreed, “Are you gonna give us a tour of his house?”

Aran sighed and rolled his eyes, why did he bother. He turned back around in time to hear Suna say, “keep this up and they won’t even let you _in_ the house.”

He smirked at the offended noises the twins made as the door swung open.

Kita’s grandmother immediately greeted them, ushering in the third years quickly and greeting them casually. She knew all of them by that point, as Kita had them over pretty often. She glanced out at the second years standing on the porch.

“Hello,” She smiled at them, “Are you Shinsuke’s other friends?”

Aran laughed as he watched them react to being called Kita’s friends. The second years really were wrapped around Kita’s finger weren’t they? He toed off his shoes and hung his bag up a he walked over to Kita who looked equally as amused.

“See? They’re fine,” Aran said as they watched the second years introduce themselves to Kita’s Grandmother. “Nothing to worry about.”

“How did you know I was-”

“Oh! Uh well…” Aran starts, looking at where Kita’s hand was still fiddling with his bag strap. He grabs it, stopping the movement. “You know your face isn’t the only that reveals what you’re thinking you know?” He pulls Kita’s hand between them, staring at it as he opens it by running his thumb over the palm. “It took me a while to figure it out but you express yourself in your own ways.”

“Aran,” Kita says, and Aran looks up, freezing as he realizes how close they are. _Too close_ , Kita’s face sets in determination, “Aran I-”

“Alright!” Kita’s grandmother said, “You boys head into the dining room and set up, I’ll bring you snacks,” She smiled at Aran, “I have your favorite today.”

Aran jumped, dropping Kita’s hand, and putting his behind his back to face her, “Oh! Thank you ma’am! That’s very kind of you”

“Oh come on now Aran, you don’t need to be so formal with me anymore, we’re well past that.”

Aran could feel the entire team, save Kita, staring at him. He tried not to sweat, this was normal! He and Kita were close! They all knew that! Just best friends!

He smiled at her, “Haha. Thank you, I’ll try to remember.”

She nodded and made her way into the kitchen, the team still looking at Aran.

“I want to have my favorite snack,” Atsumu whined, “Why does Aran get to have his favorite snack?”

Aran let out a breath, leave it to Atsumu to break the tension.

“I get my favorite snack because she knows me well,” Aran responded, reaching over to ruffle his hair. “Maybe if you’re good, you’ll keep getting invited back and she’ll get your favorite snack.”  
Atsumu glared at him for messing up his hair, but nodded, seemingly satisfied with that.

“Yeah, I think last time I came she had my favorite snack too,” Akagi added, Oomimi nodding in agreement.

“See? Now let’s go to the dining room so we can start.”

Kita was already there, making sure there were enough spots at the table for every one and it was all clean.

They got started, talking about their recent practice games and what they could do better. Aran brought up some stuff the twins needed to work on, gaining him twin protests about who’s fault it was (not theirs). He ignored them and carried on.

They went on like that for a bit until Kita’s grandmother brought in snacks. She handed placed them in the center of the table along with a pitcher of water with cut up fruit inside. They all thanked her, and she smiled before going to leave the room.

“Oh.” Kita said suddenly, “I think I left the notes I took during one of our games in my room, let me go get it.”

“Oh Shinsuke don’t worry,” His grandmother interrupted, “It’ll be hard for you to get out from there, I’m sure Aran can go, he knows his way around your room.”

The team all looked at him.

Aran looked away.

It was true, Kita was in the corner and more or less pinned by the rest of them crowding around the table in the room. He’d probably have to move at least three other people to get out. Aran also had been over enough he knew Kita’s room pretty well, he actually already had an idea of where Kita probably put them.

But _phrasing_. He felt like phrasing was important here.

“Oh,” Oomimi said, “He probably left them on the night stand right? I think he’s done that before when I was over.”

Thank god for Oomimi, Aran nodded, “Yeah! That’s what I thought too! I’ll go get them.”

The tension dissipated, and by the time Aran got back they were talking like it had never happened. He sighed, they’d be fine. This was fine.  
And it was fine, until Osamu had to open his big mouth.

“Ya know,” he started, “I’ve been kinda wondering this since we got here, but why are you in Kita’s family photos, Aran?”

Aran stopped. What?

He looked over to the wall where Osamu was pointing and sure enough, there he was in one of the photos. He remembered that day, they were helping Kita’s grandmother in the garden together. Kita had accidentally splashed mud on him, so Aran had less accidentally sprayed him with a hose, and it had only continued from there. By the time his grandmother had found them they had been a mess, and she immediately insisted on taking a photo together for memories. It had felt embarrassing at the time, but looking at it now it felt at home with the other pictures.

But it still didn’t explain why he was in them. How to explain Kita’s grandmother was incredibly attached to him because she thought he was dating her grandson without making it seem weird...

“Isn’t Aran also in _your_ family photos?” Suna pointed out, and Aran really did love his team sometimes.

“Oh yeah! I remember seeing him in a bunch of them when we came over!” Gin agreed, “It was like he was just their third son, the Miyas really like you, huh Aran!”

“Wouldn’t you if the twins were your children?” Suna asked with a smirk, ducking when Osamu reached across the table to smack him.

Aran rolled his eyes, but thanked his lucky stars that didn’t raise any questions.

“I can’t believe we were rationalizing that. I can’t believe you let us do that to ourselves. It’s because you were dating! I really tried to make myself believe it was just guys being dudes!” Akagi butts in, finally freeing himself of Oomimi’s grasp. “You let us ignore those signs!!”

“What was I supposed to do!?” Aran asks, “Just go out and say ‘hey I’m fake dating Kita and have been for the past year and half dont worry about it too much but don’t tell his Grandmother’ ? Like that would’ve been any better!”

“Actually,” Oomimi says, doing his best to wrestle Akagi down again, “That would’ve been a lot better.”

“Nobody asked you, Ren.”

Oomimi shrugs, and goes back to quieting Akagi.

It seemed like the worst was over after that. They talked about volleyball for a bit longer before moving off topic because they were bored high schoolers. Aran’s not sure how they got there but first someone mentioned stores downtown, then they were talking about places to eat, and somehow they had gotten to this one cafe that had opened the year prior.

They were talking about it and the reputation it had been gaining when Kita’s grandmother walked in again with more snacks for them.

One of them mentioned the name and Kita’s grandmother added herself in.

“Oh there? I know Kita and Aran have gone before so I’m sure they can tell you about it, right?” She asked happily.

“Uhh,” Aran said, doing his best to not make eye contact with a single person at the table, “Yes! I’m sure we could. Haha. Thank you. For saying that.” He tried to send her a smile.

It must've been alright because she smiled back and patted his cheek, “I’m probably going to head upstairs for now but if you boys need anything feel free to help yourselves to it.”

And with that she left.

The table was silent.

Aran waits patiently for the penny to drop.

“So,” It’s Gin who finally broke the silence, half the table staring at Kita, and the other half staring at Aran. Gin is unfortunately, staring at Aran, “I’m just going to say what we’re all thinking. But isn’t that place only for couples?”

“Gin’s such a good kid.” Oomimi says, and Aran sends him a betrayed look.

Akagi cheers, “Hell yeah! Interrupt his story! Praise Gin! The kid deserves it, Kita’s too rough on him. Captain rec or no, at this rate he’s gonna give the kid a heart attack before he can even tell the coach to consider him.”

"Yeah, but isn't that really just trying to prep him to deal with the twins without him _or_ Aran?" Oomimi points out. "Gin can't keep indulging them if he wants the team to stay standing."

Akagi sighs, "Maybe. But I still think the rest of us should ease up!"

"I've never done anything to Gin," Aran points out, "But I'm considering changing that since he didn't keep his mouth shut."

Akagi laughs so hard Oomimi just waves at Aran to ignore him and continue.

There isn't a lot left. After Gin said that the silence had continued. The entire team waiting for an explanation from one of them, and neither of them providing. Aran knows he should probably lie, just say that he and Kita went as friends. Not to label things like that, tell Gin to keep his mind open or something.

"You leave Gin alone!" Akagi yells between laughs.

"SHUT UP," Oomimi and Aran respond.

Would saying they went as friends even be a lie? They weren’t actually dating right? So technically they had gone as friends, it didn’t matter what it looked like. What other people who were there had probably thought of them. What Aran had felt like while they were there. What he felt like throughout this whole thing. Those all didn’t matter, because no matter how you looked at it the reality was that they weren’t dating. They never had been.

Aran finally looked over and made eye contact with Kita, trying his best to figure out what Kita wanted them to do. This was for Kita right? All of it, the hand holding, the contact, the dates, they were to help Kita. So Aran would follow Kita’s lead on what to do.

But for the first time in a while, Kita looked lost. He had been caught off guard by it too, getting caught. Sure all these things could individually be brushed off, but piled together, the team had a pretty strong case against them. One that Kita wasn’t ready for.

Aran gave himself a second to be surprised at that, that Kita was caught completely off guard by something. But this was his friend (among other things) so then Aran tried his best to send a reassuring smile at Kita. He’d follow his lead, support whatever decision Kita made. He’d be there for him.

That seemed to be enough, Kita stared at him for a second, then shook himself out of whatever daze he’d fallen into. Quickly gaining his footing again and sitting up to address the team.

“Well,” Kita started, pulling something out of his bag, “Thank you for reminding me that we need to stay productive while you’re here. I’m sure we all have assignments we need to work on so you second years should take advantage of having third years around to help ya right now.”

The team stayed frozen for another second, letting the words sink in. Oomimi sent a skeptical look at Kita, but the rest of them followed along. Aran pulling out one of his assigned readings and putting it on the table with a pointed _smack_. The second years groaned at the reminder of homework, but followed suit, Gin quickly distracting Akagi by asking about one of the books he’d read last year. The twins quickly split themselves up between Aran and Kita, effectively using the rest of their time, even if they kept sending them looks every now and then.

By the time they were leaving the team had all worked with the every second year, and the second years had gotten into a fight over how to do a math problem, all of them with a different way to do it, only for Kita to point out they were all doing it wrong. Aran had hoped that was enough to get them to forget about it, forget about all of it, and hopefully just learn to ignore it next time they came over. But the second he and the Miyas got into his moms car for the ride home they were immediately asking questions. Ones not specific enough for his mom to catch on thankfully, but questions none the less.

Before Aran could even try to answer any of them his phone rang and he quickly answered.

“Hello?”

“Hi,” Kita responded, voice soft. “Are the twins bothering you?”

“I’m sure you know the answer to that,” Aran sighed.

Kita laughed lightly, “Yeah, I do. Sorry I can’t be there, but as long as you’re on the phone they can’t bother you right?”

“You’d be surprised,” Aran said flatly, thinking about the amount of times the twins had interrupted him, “But it looks like so far you’re right.”

“That’s good, I wouldn’t want you to deal with them alone.” Kita said, “I can stay on the phone until you drop them off? I have to do some cleaning anyways.”

“That’d be nice,” Aran replied, smiling, looks like Kita was here for him too.

“And then we stayed on the phone till my mom got to the twins house, I got scolded for being rude for being on the phone so long. Then we all came to school this morning, you guys tried to sneakily stalk me and Kita through campus all day. Then you were all distracted during afternoon practice, Akagi took a ball to the face, and we got let out early. You guys grabbed me and Kita, dragged us to separate rooms. And here we are.” Aran summarized, sitting back and letting out a breath. “And that’s everything. I’m leaving now.”

“Wait wait, one more question,” Akagi said, looking a lot more serious now. “I know you mentioned how long this was going on, but how long was it going to continue? Is it still going? How far are you two gonna take this?”

“Oh, well, uhh. We started because Kita’s grandmother was bothering him about marriage stuff so-”

“WERE YOU GOING TO LET YOURSELF GET FAKE MARRIED???” Akagi yells, almost falling off his chair.

“NO!” Aran responds quickly, “No I wasn’t! Let me finish! We started because of his grandmother bothering him about that, but we were probably only going to keep going until it was realistic enough that our ‘break up’ would take Kita out of the dating scene for a while! Or if Kita actually found someone he _actually_ wanted to date. Whichever was first… The other thing hasn’t happened yet so you know, here we are. We’ll probably break up at the end of the year or something.”

And that had actually been Aran’s plan, end it after this year. This was only making him like Kita more, and it wasn’t worth the effort of bringing something like that into his career after high school. He did a lot of things for Kita, but he’s pretty sure after this year his time with him will have run out.

“Kita and I are probably going our separate ways after this year anyways, you know he’s staying here and well. I still need to consider my team offers,” Aran pulls on his back pack as he tells them this, still facing them. This was also true, another part of his plan, let the distance between them do the work for him. He’d get over it, and go back to being Kita’s friend, and it’d all be fine.

“Aran-” Oomimi tries.

“It’s just how things are sometimes.” Aran continues, “I’m sure Kita’s probably the same about breaking up soon, and he told me his plans for life after high school a long time ago.” Not that they’d ever actually really talked about it.

“Oh,” A different voice says, and now that Aran thinks about it, wasn’t it kind of weird Akagi had let his head fall into his hands? Even Oomimi was making a face. Aran turns.

And finds Kita in the doorway.

“Kita-” He starts, how much did he hear? How long has he been here? What does he know? What did he-

“You guys are still busy then,” Kita cuts him off quickly, his face neutral, but his hands are strangling his bag strap. “I’ll be waiting outside the school Aran. I’ll meet you there to walk home. Bye.”

Then Kita turns around and speed walks away.

“You guys couldn’t have stopped me?” Aran asks. Sighing.

“I did try,” Oomimi points out, and Aran sighs again, that was true.

“You’re right, I’m sorry. It’s just,” He runs a hand over his face, “This is gonna suck, isn’t it.”

“Probably,” Akagi agrees.

“Aran, before you go,” Oomimi stands and puts a hand on his shoulder, “I want you to make sure you’re not doing too much with this okay? You do so much for all of us, and we love you for it. But make sure you do things for yourself too, alright?”

Aran stares at him for a second, “Yeah. Yeah, I will. Thank you.” He looks away, he did things for himself. Right?

“Okay,” Oomimi squeezes his shoulder, “Now go get changed and find Kita, we’ll make sure the twins don’t bother you.”

“More like we’ll make sure Kita didn’t murder them,” Akagi snorts. He slaps Aran on the back, “Now go find Kita before one of you manages to bring the mood down even more!”

Aran rolls his eyes, but smiles again, and runs out the door.

He breathes a sigh of relief when he finds Kita leaning against the fence outside of school. He’d been worried that maybe Kita would have taken the opportunity to bolt, but thankfully Aran wouldn’t have to hunt him down tonight. He jogs up to him, trying to figure out what he wanted to do.

Oomimi’s words had confused him, do something for himself? Like what? Thinking about fake dating Kita had only made him question if he really was doing it for Kita, or if he was doing it as an excuse to be close to him. Wasn’t that doing something for himself? Or did the fact that Aran was so ready to end it and move on, proof that it wasn’t for himself at all?

What would be for himself then? Accepting one of the confessions he’d gotten throughout the years? Saying goodbye to Kita and actually dating someone? Was that he wanted?

“Hi,” Kita says, looking at the ground.

“Hi,” Aran replies.

They both wait for the other to say something.

“I’m sorry.”

“I don’t- Wait what?”

“I’m sorry,” Kita repeated, “I don’t want to fake date anymore.”

“Oh,” Aran says, well. Looks like what he was thinking about didn’t matter in the end. “That’s fine.”

“I- I don’t.” Kita tries again, “I don’t want to fake date anymore,” He sends Aran a look, like this is supposed to mean something. He’s twisting his bag strap so much Aran’s pretty sure hes stretched it permanently, and his voice is rough.

“Um, yeah, you already said that?” Aran replies, glancing at him again, was he missing something? He watches Kita string out his bag strap, was he still allowed to stop him? Could he still do that now that they weren’t fake dating?

“Okay. I’m doing this the direct way then.” Kita sighs.

“What?” Was going out and saying he wanted them to fake break up (real break up? Real fake break up??) not the direct way? What was the direct way?

“You can do anything you’ve practiced,” Kita mumbles to himself, his nerves starting to seep into his expression. “And I practiced this a lot.”

“What are you talking about?” Aran asks, “Isn’t that what you were talking about for volleyball?”

Kita blinks, “You remember that?”

“Of course I do? Why wouldn’t I?”

That seems to do something to Kita, because the nerves leave, now he just looks determined.

“Aran,” Kita says, finally releasing his bag to grab Aran’s hands in his. “Would you like to go out with me?”

Aran stares, “I think I just hallucinated something, can you repeat that.”

Kita laughs, “Aran, go out with me.”

“Again?” Aran asks, hadn’t they just real-but-not- _real_ -broken-up 30 seconds ago?

“No, no,” Kita says, still laughing lightly, “Actually, I want you to actually date me,” He squeezes Aran’s hands, “Please.”

“Oh,” Aran says, still not entirely sure this is sinking in. “Yes. Yeah. I would like that.”

Kita’s eyes widened, “Oh. Really?”

“Wh- Yes really!” Aran lets out a surprised laugh, “Did you just ask me randomly? Are you really that surprised I said yes?”

“Well,” Kita swings their hands between them, “I’ve been planning to ask you for a while, but I never really figured out how… You don’t know how many nights I stayed up trying to plan this…”

“Hey well it’s all about the process right?” Aran asks with a teasing smile. “And I guess we’re here now.”

“Yeah,” Kita smiles, “But I really don’t think our day to day is going to change much…”

Oh, well that was true, “I guess you’re right, all that practice does pay off then, huh?”

Kita chuckles, “Yeah, but you know I can think of something new that we can start doing now,” He leans close and looks up at Aran through his eyelashes, “Can you?”

Aran is working incredibly hard to make sure his brain does not cut out here, he can’t let it happen, he won’t. “Uhh, yes. Yes, I can definitely think of something, I would definitely not be opposed to doing. I am-”

“Aran,” Kita rests a hand on his chest, “I’m going to kiss you now.”

“Okay,” Aran squeaks out.

Kita’s lips are incredibly soft, and Aran wonders if he does something to keep them that way. It’s a chaste kiss, and Aran's fine leaving it that way, but Kita doesn’t let up. He’s insistent and unrelenting, pushing his weight against Aran. His body is warm against Aran in the cold night, and Aran bringing his hand up to cup Kita’s face is a stark reminder of that.

Kita gasps at Aran’s cold hand brushing against his neck, breaking the kiss.

“Wow,” Aran lets out, trying to catch his breath, “I really hope you haven’t been practicing that with anyone else.”

Kita laughs, shivering a bit as the cold from Aran’s hand seeps into his face. Aran goes to move it away, but Kita stops him, placing his hand on top of Aran’s. “Don’t move away yet, I want to let this happen for a little bit.”

“Okay,” Aran replies, letting Kita lean into his hand, feeling the temperature equal out, becoming almost as warm as Aran’s face felt right now. Kita hums happily as the warmth returns.

Kita smiles at him, “You have to call me Shinsuke now, y’know?” He smirks, “No take backs anymore.”

“Okay Shinsuke,” Aran laughs using his other arm to pull Shinsuke in closer, and kisses him again.

**Author's Note:**

> One time someone told me once I need to work harder on being good at using tenses and instead of listening to that i made this, which has the most tense change and low readability out of anything i’ve ever written and who knows where they are but im still here and so are you so who’s the real winner? (No one)  
> Btw after this ends the rest of the team all pops out of where they were hiding in the bushes and cheers and ruins their moment. Love that for them.  
> Also there was totally an alternate scene when Akagi asked 'were you going to let yourself get fake married??' where Aran realizes yes. yes he absolutely would've. but this was already so self indulgent i didn't include it skjfhsldkg  
> I hope you enjoyed!! Thank you for reading!!


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